US sailors who helped the quake-stricken Japanese as part of “Operation Tomodachi” are now suing them for exposing them to radiation.

8 sailors from the US carrier “Ronald Reagan” who participated in the US military’s “Operation Tomodachi” efforts to aid beleaguered areas are suing the operators of the plant which spewed radiation over western Japan, alleging they have all potentially suffered horrendous radiation poisoning.

They say the Japanese government and the plant’s operator TEPCO (now semi-nationalised as the price for getting out of similar lawsuits) lied about the radiation dangers the plant’s open reactors posed, and consequently caused them to be deployed into unsafe areas.

They are demanding $10 million in compensation for a “lifetime of radiation poisoning and suffering,” along with a further $30 million for allegedly covering up the extent of the disaster, and for good measure another $100 million to provide for any future medical expenses.

TEPCO have so far declined to comment on the litigation, saying they have yet to see the details.

As nobody has formally been held accountable for the nuclear disaster in Japan, let alone actually punished, there does not seem to be much chance of Japanese authorities going along with the suit – nor of much of a payout should Japan’s stingy courts be involved.

So far there have been no confirmed incidences of radiation related health damage as a result of the disaster, although of course large tracts of the prefecture remain indefinitely evacuated precisely as a precaution against this.

Most of the fallout in fact seems now to be poisoning the reputation of the US in Japan:

“Who needs friends like these…”

“Shouldn’t they be suing the US military rather than TEPCO?”

“So this is the real reason for Operation Tomodachi!”

“All for nothing now.”

“Operation Extortion.”

“So the Yanks were just pretending to be our friends all along… How very American.”

“Gangster diplomacy, as usual.”

“This is horrible…”

“And just one idiot can ruin the whole thing. You hairy barbarians, call yourselves our friends!?”

“I would have thought the US military were far better informed about what was going on than anyone else.”

“Nobody would believe they didn’t know exactly what was happening with all their drones and spies.”

“Thank goodness for this alliance!”

“If they actually win this it could open the floodgates for people to get real compensation here as well. Good luck, I hope you get the bastards!”

“What does anyone expect from Americans and their love of lawsuits?”

“How much injury does it take to be considered a victim? Full paralysis?”

“Japanese are weak to foreign pressure. For the sake of the victims here, I hope they win.”

“This lawsuit is to be expected! The naive Japanese played right into the hands of the nuclear power camp.”

“The case is being brought in a US federal court. Somehow I expect they will have trouble enforcing claims made against a Japanese regional power utility.”

Keep building those nuclear plants. Before long you will shrink even smaller than what you already are. 🙂 Btw. America to Japan: “We saved your lives, now forget the debt you have on us and You’re Welcome.”

Wth? Suing foreign nations is just complete idiocy. Any actions taken on foreign soil which were due to commands under military order are meant to be contained in a military sect. If they have any medical issues then it is their duty to report it to their commanding officers immediately to ensure medical coverage and reparations. Seriously, why is it always the navy who do stupid shit in other countries. Even the army is starting to have a better image than them.

From what I see it’s everyone’s fault. The company shouldn’t have lied about the amount of radiation there was in the area, but the military was in the wrong too. Instead of just trusting the word of the company they should’ve utilized the equipment they had (assuming they had equipment for measuring levels of radiation which they should’ve) to check the levels themselves as a safety measure. Also let’s stop the back and fourth of stereotypical insults to each others countries like one is better than the other, it’s immature. Clearly from this incident neither country is perfect or superior to one another.

They’re feeding their sick and dying to the wolves and are shocked that americans aren’t lying down and taking their tepco reaming.

Japanese people shouldn’t bitch because the americans wouldn’t be sick and dying if they used proper safety equipment which they would have used if tepco wasn’t filled with evil lying shitheads.

Hey Japan, quit your bitching and support them. If they win then maybe your cancer stricken relatives will be able to hold tepcos feet to the fire so you won’t get bankrupt paying for their medication and hospital stays.

There are a growing number of us that are getting tired of all the ingratitude and think we should just let everyone else fend for themselves and focus on helping our own people here at home. I am not saying I am one of them… yet, but it’s getting harder to argue with those who want to tell the rest of the world to piss off.

I’m disgusted that this suit is really just about a huge payday, because what it should be about is demanding TEPCO take full financial responsibility for any cancer related medical bills linked to any & all of the volunteers.

TEPCO & the Japanese government LIED about ration levels, therefore they should be held accountable for damages relating to their negligence.

I find the response to this to be sickening. Lets imagine that it was an AMERICAN nuclear power disaster and JAPANESE volunteers had been sent in to lend humanitarian aid only to find that they had been lied to by the American company operating the plant and were exposed to far more radiation than they were led to believe, causing them to suffer the effects of radiation poisoning. You think the same Japanese that are deriding and ridiculing these Americans for bringing a lawsuit against TEPCO wouldn’t be calling for American blood? You think 90% of the comments wouldn’t be stating how its the least the greedy, lazy Americans owe those heroic volunteers? But because it’s Americans suing a Japanese company, suddenly it’s all about greed on the Americans’ side and everyone rushes to defend the CORRUPT company which built the plant with China-quality construction which was directly responsible for CAUSING the disaster in the first place and then LIED to cleanup volunteers about the radiation levels.

Or shit, imagine if it had been a Chinese nuclear power plant operated by a Chinese company. Sankaku would be frothing at the fucking mouth about it.

Most arrogant anti American site in existence. you all need to get a life. Reason you hear more about us is we spend more on these stupid countries then we do on our own and we have massive debt because of it. I think my country should pull out of all your countries and say let them all die killing each other. but that my opinion and we all know opinions are like asshole we all have one. the end

If you think the US Navy, Defense Department or the State Department are going to let these 8 clowns pull this off your crazier than they are.

When these guys enlisted and swore the oath to obey the legally given orders of their superiors they gave up the right to sue. The whole idea of the military is to go in harms way. It’s like a soldier suing not to be shot or killed in time of war. The whole thing is ludicrous. It’s an occupational hazard.

They sound like a bunch of jailhouse lawyers or somebodies cousin is an ambulance chasing shyster back in the States.

I bet they are going to get leaned on hard to forget this or wind up on some isolated shithole in the middle of nowhere.

You know absolutely nothing. Soldiers are entirely able to sue OUTSIDE AGENTS if they feel their lives or health have been unduly affected outside the line of duty. For example, in 1984 a group of Viet Nam veterans successfully sued the chemical companies that provided Agent Orange to the US government, alleging that they knew more about the dangers of the chemical than they let on and consequently more than the soldiers were led to believe when being exposed to it. Sound familiar? Because it’s basically exactly the same thing that these soldiers are alleging about TEPCO; that it knew more about the dangers of working in the cleanup zone than it let on and thus soldiers were unknowingly exposed to higher doses of radiation than they were led to believe.

Yeah 1984! 15 years after the fact! In a class action suit, as private citizens, not while they were still serving on active duty.

Dupont settled by giving 180 million dollars to 291,000 claimants. That’s like $618 dollars a person. Unfortunately a lot of them didn’t get anything. They don’t even know where most of the money went(except maybe to lawyers).

TEPCO is NOT a US company so lots of luck getting anything.

BTW I’m ex-military so I do know something. I know when to quit bellyaching and whining. Sometimes shit happens. That’s part of the job too. Death gets us all in the end.

Actually, it’s the former residents of those affected regions who should have sued the government. Those few that have done so where readily ignored anyway and are now treated worse than the lowliest piece of dirt.

If anything, it’s the corrupted politicians who should have suffered the most from this but as per usual, they are still doing fine while the common people suffer their incompetence.

These 8 Navy Sailors… Are you even fucking Soldiers? What about those who died in Iraq, Afghanisthan? Those soldiers faced live insurgents, and suicide bombs and bombers which will kill you in 3… 2… 1… DEAD!

These guys just saved and cleaned up places and the radiation thing would likely take years to be noticed… What soft-skinned weaklings!

Soldiers in Iraq are voluntarily going in the line of fire. It’s their job and they’re paid to do it. The sailors were, on the other hand, told there was no danger, which resulted in them not using protective gear when it would actually have saved them from irradiation. Go die in Iraq if you find it so damn glorious.

We as Americans have such a poor image with the rest of the world. This is not going to help. However, if the reactor issues were due to errors of the plants employees instead of the earthquake, I think they should burn in one form or another, probably better at the hands of the Japanese that suffered from the event as they are the ones who have to live with it now.

They were probably under orders which means they have no one to complain to except their own chain of command. I was a Marine and I know I did not join expecting to never face danger and hazards. People are fucked up and a small group want to try and profit off of the situation. A nuclear plant had just melted down; they knew what they were getting into. Welcome to the human race.

actually the japanese gave up before the nukes were dropped, it was a mis-translation on the americans side that brought about the bombing.

The americans informed the japanese to give up or feel their wrath and the japanese replyed with a simple “we will surrender” and it was translated to “we’ll not surrender” but hey why put that in the history books???

lol what interests, Japan is a tapped out resource and the US has moved onto other nations. If Japan had any value to the US, they would not be stuck in an economic slump since the 90s. Not that any of you weeaboos would ever acknowledge the fact that your chinese cartoons hold no value to the world.

These guys should receive the same compensation as the american veterans of irakian war. You know, because they were exposed to radioactive amno without any knowledge. Well the american government knew, the soldier didn’t… How much did the american government pay them already?

Are you stupid? Plenty of articles have mentioned that the plant was a US firm designed & built power plant. Not that it matters when the plant is Japanese OWNED and originally scheduled to be DECOMMISSIONED several years ago. But was kept in operation because TEPCO cared more about their bottom dollar and less about safety concerns.

LOL no. Japanese built 2 out of 4 reactors that exploded, and those were clearly designs that were safe only for upto 6m tsunami. We had better designs, but japs were too greedy and put profit above safety, and bought cheaper designs.

US firm designed the reactors, but half were jap built, and those were purposefully cheap. If they bought better ones that could withstand greater disaster, this would not have happened.

Why is it always the actions of few seem to make such an impact on others that they all assume that anyone and everyone else from that country are just as bad? I know it’s happened throughout history but it gets quite annoying, don’t you think?

It’s hella annoying, yes. People generalize because it’s simple to do so. The majority of humans always prefer to be simple. Treating each individual as a separate entity is too difficult.

It’s like how people attribute occurrences to “a miracle created by the inner workings of God”. It’s a hell of a lot simpler to believe that there’s a single all-powerful entity in control of everything, rather than an incomprehensibly large concert of factors contributing to any result.

The U.S. is the empire, and Japan is the colony. But with the rise of China and Russia, and global economic turmoil, the U.S. might have more trouble on its hands than it can handle> Therefore Japan should get its shits together, and start making friends with its real neighbours. Maybe only then the renowned Kamikaze will start blowing their way once more.

No, sir, it doesnt’. 50 mSv/y is the highest permitted dose for a radiation worker. For something that has real killer capacity, you must go for 2000 mSv, 20 time more. Usually fatal is two times that, even.

And… yes, real radiation was “low”: 180 mSv is probably the highest workers were exposed to (250 is the limit in such cases). Bad stuff, of course, but no one died, and that’s statiscally sound.
This isn’t normal, per se, if confronted to normal exposition (background yearly exposition and routine medical procedures), but it is for the civilians, in the sense that 1msV was the norm for two weeks in the exclusion zone, where no civilians (and almost surely, no US soldiers) were allowed. 1/7 of a CT chest scan, and 10 times what was going in the center of Fukushima (which was evacuated, duh).

Not that I don’t think japs haven’t sadomasochist tendencies about their governements’ doing in the infrastructure business, but this is another matter altogether.

Oh, and i’m waiting for the cite about woods around Fukushima city without wildlife. I love urban legends!

Before using the brain, assure yourself that you have installed the minum programs about the fact and have the brain capacity to process them, thanks.

Why does nobody get that this is a PRIVATE lawsuit. It’s not America suing Japan. It’s 8 dudes suing 1 company. This shouldn’t be a diplomatic issue, but it is because nobody recognizes this including the politicians (of both sides) that should know better. This lawsuit has NO reflection on the American government whatsoever. If the soldiers were Canadian would this even be news?

These guys were there performing legally given assignments by their direct superiors. In other words the US Government. They swore an oath to do just that. Upon swearing that oath you give up the right to sue privately in military matters. It’s not as if they were suing about a privately owned lemon car or a defective TV.
The whole lawsuit is ridiculous. Too many TV shows or bad advice I think. If you don’t want to be put at risk don’t join the military. No one broke their arms to enlist. Too many people join and expect nothing bad to happen.

In accordance with the Feres doctrine, U.S. military personnel on active duty give up the right to sue the U.S. military. The doctrine does not extend to protecting private firms from suit by U.S. military personnel. However, I doubt that the American military personnel have any chance of a successful suit anyway. Once their superior officers gave the orders to move into the area, they would have had to comply regardless of how hazardous the conditions in the area were.

There’s a pretty big difference between being put at risk, and being told you’re not in any discernible danger when in reality you’re being irradiated. Had they known that they would have been better outfitted to operate in a more radioactive zone.

Not to mention barely anyone in affected in Japan has been able to get any compensation from either this company, or the government. If they get even one yen from this law suit it’ll open up the gates to let all the people who have lost their entire home due to this disaster reap some compensation.

Tepco told dying people to suck it up and won’t compensate them for their pain and suffering and all of the people that are dead and dying thanks to their corruption.

You’ll lie down and take your corporate sponsored buttfucking like a good civilized little bitch unlike those evil hairy barbarians who have the nerve to be angry when they’re lied to about something that’s now going to kill them.

Fuck you you dickless cowardly corporate asslicker.

I’d keep insulting you but a ceo wants to ream someones asshole until they bleed to death, I think that’s the job of a bootlicking little bitch like you.

Oil doesn’t cause your skin or body to melt or your hair to fall out, unlike what radiation does. Maybe you should have went there and re-experience puberty again of being a hairless/dick-less Canadian, Eh?

See what happen? People suing a private entity because they in tandem with the Japanese government downplayed the severity of this disaster leading people to be unnecessarily exposed to elevated levels of radiation?

If that’s not a legitimate reason to attempt to sue someone I don’t know what is.

If this/were a class action lawsuit, and all that money were going to be distributed among all the survivors or go into some sort of a dedicated government held account, where American soldiers that got sick from radiation poisoning could apply for compensation for treatment and perhaps some lost productivity, I could see 140 million being a fair, for all the soldiers exposed.

140$ for eight people, soldiers or not, is sky high and worthy or ridicule.

Actuly tehy should be sueing the japanese gov. The government failed by accepting the plants owners radiation readings and should have had tehir own people monitoring as well assuming they as well werent covering up the real data which would be even worse.

Ha! that’s hypocrisy at it’s finest: I helped your country because of my will to be helpful to others, understanding the risks that the decision carries upon, now because your country has damaged my health, I will forget the solidarity and goodwill of my actions and sue whoever the fuck I could find as a culprit to get some retribution.

You do understand that Japan, and by that i mean its figureheads and representatives, is openly lying, down-playing and otherwise ignoring the whole extent of this catastrophe?

You understand that the real victims, the former residents of those devastated regions in Japan now live in inhumane conditions and are practically ostracized from the rest of their society because of uneducated prejudice and fear?

You do understand that nothing, absolutely nothing has changed about the practices and leadership of those who were responsible for this fiasco?

You do understand that the vast majority of those “cleaning up” that mess on site are former long-time unemployed, under-qualified, leased/temporary workers who, for all intents and purposes, aren’t even reimbursed with a fitting wage to the fact that they are most likely going to die really soon.

You do understand that people, living in the affected regions, who want to leave their homes behind and ask for the governments help in relocation are completely brushed aside?

The list of what you should understand goes on and on and on and it should really tell you that sueing this “friend” is the least that should be done, to be honest.

No you see there are various facts about radiation, and the fact is that the dose I’d get camping outside the Fukushima plant would be lower than the dose I’d get camping in certain parts of Cornwall for a comparable amount of time.

I can’t camp outside the plant because paranoid idiots who don’t know anything about radiation ramble on at the slightest provocation. Generally sponsored by less then true propaganda from the Anti-Nuclear weapons groups and the fossil power groups. You’re generally more at risk from an old fashioned glow in the dark watch.

There’s an industry built on top of nuclear scare mongering plus 50 odd years of misinformation and a general lack of education.

Disagree, its the suing parties fault. They knew the area was potentially harmfull when deploying. Pretty much as silly as suing the city of Tijuana because you fell on the barbed-wire fence preventing another silly stereotypical fence jumping Mexican

Just needless to say… You work arond barbed-wire you go get a damn tetanus shot, I work construction, I bring a hardhat… Heading into irradiated terrain? Two words for you… LEAD CUP

If anything, the government should already be taking care of and compensating them for any ailments present and in the future, they are set. Also, the navy does not represent those sailors in terms of the lawsuit, the sailors are doing it individually. They’re just greedy soldiers that want wayyy too much. I know because I was in the navy, stationed in yokosuka japan.

Technically they are in the right here, cause if the US military was told by the company the real danger (they were relying on the company for accurate info) then those personal sent in would have had proper protective gear

Except the Navy gives dosimeters to those crew who would be exposed to radiation in order to monitor their exposure (like any nukes and everyone on subs). The Navy is aware of how much they were exposed to and are responsible for sending them back even if they’ve taken too much.

When they enlisted into the US NAVY the soldiers knew they were going to lose a arm, become blind, or be exposed to nuclear warefare. Japan won’t have to pay a dime, the US gov will compensate for their health expenses.

Soldiers involved in testing the first hydrogen bomb did not see the long-term effects of radiation exposure til SEVERAL decades later, where nearly everyone involved developed cancer in multiple vital organs. To say these soldiers should wait to sue til their organs rot is pure shit, you idiot.

Why is this being downvoted? It’s pretty much accurate for all news outlets, using tragedies or, like this site, using misleading titles to enflame the comments and people for more pageviews, or at least major one’s. Obviously, it is not always true, but here it definitely is.

Fuck the North Pole, they try to persuade the world that Santa Clause will bring gifts to good boys and girls, then out of nowhere he slides a lump of coal up their rectum and pillages their fridge. Capitalism at its finest, I tell you.

1. They entered an unsafe area while assured it WAS safe, via the verbal lies of the owners of the plant, the rigged equipment they were given to use, etc. The soldiers did not bring their own.

2. Depending on the level of radiation they were exposed to without proper protection, they are facing a VERY painful, and expensive, death. Take this from the grandson of a U.S. soldier who walked through irradiated areas of Nevada to “see what it would do to the human body”. You ever see repeated simultaneous organ failure?

3. The U.S. doesn’t “fly drones” over Japan. It’s too expensive, and pointless to do so. There was no prior knowledge of danger for the U.S. military to have to pass on to their soldiers.

4. Quite frankly, I’m appalled that the citizens of Japan allowed the whole issue to be settled as they did: Ass-raped with a radioactive dildo; ass-raped a second time by a spiked dildo for good measure (figuratively speaking, of course).

Oh, and to those who say that the soldiers shouldn’t be allowed to sue, as they were on a “humanitarian mission”, etc.? What we don’t know from this blurb of a story is if the soldiers volunteered to go ashore, believing the lies of the power company, or if they were ordered by their commanding officer(s). If it WERE an order, though, then they’d be suing the U.S. Military instead. Also, “friends don’t sue friends”? When a friend causes another friend grievous bodily harm (or, say damage to personal property left in said friends’ care), and that friend refuses to make reparations on their own, then that friend gets sued for reparations.

From what I have read, the soldiers have every right to sue, and I hope the case goes through and wins.

Almost everyone remotely educated in politics or anything will tell you, regardless of ethnicity or place, that Fox News is regarded much the same as a comedy, like the Colbert Report or The Daily Show, except lower brow, and their viewers sometimes take it seriously. Granted, it is fair, as everyone on their takes their opinions seriously when most intelligent people, or even some more well-versed morons, take their ‘opinions’, put it on their mantle, and laugh their asses off.

2.Does the US Navy bother to provide Hazmats suits for these people for some reason they should they have a navy hazmat training.

3.They don’t the reason because we have to get permission from the Japanese Government in order to fly drones in there country unless they are hiding it gets political.

4.Well Japanese known first hand experience what radiation poisoning is it seems older generation doesn’t seem to want to explain to the younger generation what it is considering there been documentary on this for many years about it.

When it comes to “proof of radiation induced illness”, it is much, much easier to simply deflect any suspicions or worries. It’s difficult to pinpoint radiation as the cause, as it constantly weakens the body’s immune systems. From what I’ve heard, many doctors also aren’t trained to identify such symptoms, or are under pressure to intentionally misdiagnose.

Governments, big businesses and the entire nuclear industry are breathing down everyone’s necks, eagerly “sweeping everything under the rug”. Infinite numbers of human lives are expendable when big money is involved. Sad, but true.

The sailors were assured by whom? Sailors do not just hop off a ship and go ashore on a whim; unless you are implying the US military is incompetent and lets its members do as they please in a foreign country during a disaster. You make it sound like the plant spoke directly to the sailors and not through diplomatic channels. If they were exposed, it was a failure of their supervisors to ensure the safety of their subordinates. It was their responsibility to obtain knowledge of the dangers prior to sending people in there. Most of the military staff involved in that operation probably know that, which is why only a handful of sailors are suing. And what makes you think the lies were not coming from within the military? They are shining beacons of truth in your eyes, no doubt.
The reason the sailors are not suing the US government is because they know they will get their asses handed to them.

You mentioned that your grandfather suffered from radiation exposure in Nevada. Did he sue the US government/military for that? How about the civilians killed by drone strikes; should family members be allowed to sue the US for that?

The sailors have a right to sue but they are barking up the wrong tree.

Assured by whom is part of the question, no? What it boils down to, is that the power company are the ones who would have supplied the materials to the “rescue workers” to use. This was with full knowledge, according to their own internal documents, that these resources they were providing was horrifically inadequate. Did the power company assure the U.S. military directly, or did they advise the soldiers who volunteered & were assigned to these high-danger zones by the company reps.?

Considering the low number of soldiers suing, it was option 2. What happens, is that the U.S. base (or ship, in this case) either calls for volunteers before assigning soldiers directly, or just assigns directly, for humanitarian causes. The soldiers then report to the ones conducting the effort they are present for, and are assigned what to do or where to go by way of their direct commanding officer (or at least it was in this instance). The U.S. is all about cost cutting (and may not have even HAD the proper suits/etc on board to use), so they used what the company provided. The commanding officer is responsible for the soldiers yes, but it was the elec. company responsible for the safety of ALL those working with/via/thru them. They are the ones who maintained the level of radiation was safe. They are the ones who fudged their own meters. They are the ones who lied to their own people, and the world in general.

I’m not certain where you get that the U.S. military are shining beacons of love & justice from the original post, but duhh, of course not. In this instance, though, the U.S. military is not at fault for the radiation the soldiers were exposed to. Unless, you’re trying to state that the U.S. caused the earthquake, which caused the tsunami, which caused the nuclear power plant to fail, and specifically ordered those soldiers to enter the (to them) knowingly most irradiated areas with knowingly faulty equipment? Impossible, because as I already stated, even IF the U.S. could do all that, the U.S. military works WITH the locals when in foreign land during humanitarian aid efforts. The soldiers stayed within their unit, but it’s the UNIT who is ordered to go to/do what the locals in charge need.

As far as my grandfather is concerned, he died in the early 1970’s, before it was (general) public knowledge that his illnesses were caused by the Nevada tests. What is interesting to note, though, that the U.S. Government DID bribe his silence about the whole thing by allowing him to retire shortly after the tests, paid him allegedly triple the normal amount paid to vet retirees (allegedly, as I never saw the checks, but I have no idea why my grandmother would lie about that), and kept the same high amount paid to her as “widow benefits” (even though he wasn’t active duty when he died) until her death twenty years later. Sure, she (and when was alive he) could have sued, but that would have, they believed, dried-up the “retirement gravy train” they were paid in (they believed dutiful) compensation.

Keep in mind the difference here: In Japan, the soldiers were instructed to enter the irradiated areas by the company that owned the plant, as the government left them in charge at first. The company knew the dangers well ahead of time, and made efforts to cover-up the truth of the danger the humanitarians were in. In my grandfathers’ case, he was ordered to enter the irradiated areas by the U.S. military, when the military knew it would be dangerous but not how much (which is what they were studying).

In the first case, the power company refuses to acknowledge their cheating/lying ways & refuses to pay damages for what they caused. In the second case, damages were paid, though no “official” announcement of fault was ever made.

See the difference? Irresponsible vs responsible. I hope I’ve pointed out enough times the reason why the power company is responsible for you as well. If not, I’ll make-up a Dick-&-Jane-esque coloring book for you to follow along with. If you DO require a coloring book, then PLEASE make certain to color the skin lesions the correct color.

As an American, I’m embarassed by these assholes. When you go in to supply disaster relief, you KNOW there is danger. But, you put the needs of the many before self. These greedy dirtbags should be ashamed.

They know there is danger and take appropriate safety measures unless of course they’re lied to by a corrupt greedy and evil business who put saving face at a higher priority than the lives of their own people

Apparently japanese people are more outraged that americans are standing up to their sacred corporations instead of dying in silence like good civilized japanalemmings.

If the Jap government lied, these guys deserve compensation. If they hadn’t lied about it, the men would have been shifted faster to avoid prolonged exposure. Even the Chernobyl cleanup crew was rotated and given safe limits. Civilians in Japan suffered too because of this.

I think they may have been ordered to go in… Not read up on it, but according to the article, they may not have had a choice, therefore, i think it is reasonable that they would be pissed.

Also, $140 million is really low sum. They should take a page from the RIAA’s book and sue for more money than exists in the world. Short of doing that, they really aren’t real Americans. Maybe south Americans, but not north Americans, that’s for sure.

Cuz everyone who works for the company in question is either an esper of a fortuneteller and they know when and why will something go wrong, right?

Honestly, these sort of “I sue you because I got hurt in a work-related accident” lawsuits only happen in America, why?!
You BARELY hear about these in Europe, people just accept that they might get injured depending on the work they do. It’s just a risk you need to take. That’s why you GET INSURANCE.

It’s not greed if they were told something about the exposure/misled intentionally by the company, then later, either were told/realized or otherwise informed that said information was incorrect and was more harmful than initially said.

They’re right to sue, the 8 sailors and the people affected by the radiation/companies bullshit, Japanese citizens included. I hope they win, as it sets the precedent for Japanese citizens to successfully sue afterwords, and will hopefully make TEPCO think twice about ever intentionally misleading volunteers about the clean-up dangers ever again, should it occur in the future.

No, but if said company improperly constructs or installs something with inferior materials so as to cut costs and then WILLFULLY LIES TO YOU about the dangers of your work environment, I’d say you have more than enough cause to bring a lawsuit against them.

IF in fact they knew about the exposion to radiation at the time the soldiers were deployed , then they must compensate, however if jap wasn’t aware of the radiation on that area, they shouldn’t be blamed for it in the 1st place, and it wouldn’t suprise me that in fact was like this.

On behalf of my fellow Americans I would like to point out. That these disgraceful humans do not represent our country, Just like the situation back when some were making tasteless “Pearl harbor” comments yet even more idiots have managed to stand out in a crowd as so often idiots usually do.

For those of you who do not understand how things work in America, Think of it this way, We are a mix of all races and types of people on the planet put into one country to work together despite our differences. So naturally there will be idiots who happen to be in our country too.

Lied to? By their own equipment? They all had geiger counters. Pretty sure they’d have known right then and there if it was dangerous. Not to mention the NUCLEAR-POWERED SHIP was parked 100 miles away from the reactor.

I have to admit–that is a lot of money, even for something as important as this. The whole idea of “get them for all they’re worth” is just… a bit over the top, don’t you think? If you want to make a point, suing isn’t a bad idea, but at least choose an amount that doesn’t make you look like you’re trying to be special and take as much money as possible. Then you stop looking like the victim and more like someone wanting to be a victim. People stop caring about your problems and focus more on your greed.

I mean, there were a ton of people involved in this–not just these soldiers. Can’t you at least share the compensation money with others who might even need it more than these guys?

The soldiers knew the risks, and at the same time, they are also required to be given accurate information from our so-called ‘friend’ about the situation, regardless of whether they are going into danger knowingly or not. This is a matter of mutual trust and information sharing.

Military took emergency measures in a very short amount of time, mobilizing vast resources to help out people of japan in this time of need, which made them take much of what japanese government and tepco said at their word, trusting them that they would be putting through truthful information about radiation and level of contamination.

Americans assumed that japan would place the dangers to its citizens as the priority and attempt to at least secretly transmit the right information to their helpers.

Not only did they lie to their own citizens, they lied to US forces about the dangers present. US military would have picked volunteers to go in anyway, and they did have rough estimate of radiation poisoning. They got their boots on the ground anyway, with marines, sailors, emergency fire departments working alongside japanese people in the same place.

The main core of this problem is not really that these sailors are poisoned or not. The main problem is the japanese attitude of being disrespectful to anyone for the sake of saving its own face, shown clearly by lying to their own citizens, their helpers, and anyone else they felt like doing so.

This is really more of an expression of frustration and hatred towards those japanese cowards who thinks their little pride should take priority over basic courtesy of being at least discretely truthful to those they are supposed to protect (citizens) and their allies (Americans) in times of emergency.

Japanese flaws are on full display, and while I do think these sailors should be reprimanded for making themselves look like this, right now japanese are not looking particularly decent in lying to their own citizens and helpers just trying to recover lost face.

Well considering these are just 8 men, chances are they are no longer in the navy forces and have hit hard times after leaving the military. Then struck a great idea how to strike it rich in a shitty economy.

Sorry for the greedy shitheads, Japan. The rest of our military are pretty decent people, a few of them just happen to slip through the cracks.

Of course, the biggest exposure that Navy personnel got was about a month’s worth of background radiation in an hour which is much less than a CT scan. Even combing the average yearly exposure plus their exposure it only comes out to about 5% of the yearly dosage you need to cause an increase in the risk of cancer and 1% of the exposure in a short term to cause radiation poisoning.

8 sailors out of a ship of over 5000. I hope the Navy slaps the shit out of them for their stupidity. Sure the segment that Sankaku has quoted is going overboard (when are they not?) but it still reflects badly on the US. Dosimeters are given to any crew who could be exposed to radiation so there should be some facts to say one way or the other.

If they did get exposed to a lot, it would be the Navy’s fault for not checking the levels and sending them in there. Although considering the levels others got exposed to who spent much more time there, it is highly unlikely they got anything bad and they’re just part of our sue-happy culture. Too bad the media has an IQ of 30 when it comes to radiation so all you can expect is for them to fuel the fire of ignorance that surrounds nuclear power.

Oh you cheeky devil, clearly I was aiming for proper spelling as an anonymous user on sankaku complex. You earn a gold star for being a total sourpuss.
Referring to me, I have fine literacy skills, that’s more than I can say for your entire populous.

If these soldiers were exposed to toxic levels of radiation because TEPCO out right lied about the radiation levels, they are well within their rights to seek compensation.

Even if you think $100 million sounds excessive, you have to realize that depending on the severity of the exposure, these men could be looking at a life time of chronic and acute health problems.

Furthermore, someone, ANYONE, needs to hold TEPCO accountable for their blatant disregard of safety when they lied about the radiation levels, and if it takes a group of US sailors to do it, than so be it, if the suit is successful, it will open the doors for other victims to step forward, who have almost certainly been suffering in silence, believing that there was nothing they could do.

They WOULD be well within their rights, they’re seeking compensation from the wrong people. If it was an AMERICAN military operation and they were given faulty information by the AMERICAN military, who didn’t bother to verify the information they were given by TEPCO…as employees of the military, it’s not on TEPCO. I did my time in the Army, and I don’t blame the nation of Iraq for any injuries (mental, physical, etc.) just because they happened to happen in Iraq. If this was because the military screwed them, they’re looking to the wrong people for their (ridiculously exorbitant) compensation.

Not that I particularly disagree with your comments, but I think that there are many parties involved who all ought to shoulder some of the responsibility. Their combined actions spell a bleak future for the rest of us.

You’re wrong. I don’t know if you were ever in the military, but that’s not how it works. The military is responsible for its own people, and that means *it* is accountable for what happens to them. If you are ordered to go to Point X, you go there. And if that order causes Bad Thing to happen to you, then that’s *our military’s* responsibility. *That* is how it works.

You act as if we don’t have radiation monitoring equipment and had to rely on TEPCO for that sort of information. Wrong. We have our own stuff. We were perfectly capable of determining the radiation and contamination levels where we deployed our people. I’m sure we *did* do so. This is a frivilous lawsuit because if they were serious, they’d be suing the US Government, not Japan, just like that Agent Orange thing in Vietnam, or the “Persian Gulf Syndrome” from the 1991 Gulf War. The fact that they’re *not* suing the US Government for this make it pretty clear that this is a cash grab and nothing more.

The US military (at the time)had no reason to doubt TEPCO and it makes perfect sense to defer to the local experts who should know more about their plant and the situation. Had TEPCO given the military the correct information, the operation would have been adjusted accordingly. So know, the full blame falls on TEPCO for lying in the first place.

Most of the US military refused to even step on Japanese soil and stayed far far away in their ship, not wanting to help… while dozens of other countries had men and women working side by side with the victims of this disaster.

Yes, they may have been exposed to some radiation, but probably more by (for example) playing Angry Birds on the phone than hiding in the seas and later yell “I am the boss for I am America! So awesome! Bow before me, you weak creatures!”. And now they demand compensation for it? Yes, they are idiots. I do believe most aren’t, but it only takes a few to make all look bad.

Since Sankaku often hate the Chinese, imagine if those were Chinese. Imagine if they demanded compensation for sending humanitarian help (and then just stand there staring for a while before acting). Would you react the same way? Wake up and grow up.

LOL what a bitch. Watch where you put your mouth and know some facts before bitching like a slut in heat.

US sailors, emergency personnel, all were there right besides the japanese passing out supplies, cleaning up debris, and getting people out of the hot zone. We weren’t the ones with soliders like japs who exposed himself in public because he would rather be arrested than go to fukushima.

>I was going to provide a lengthy counter argument, but then i realized i could just quote this one line to prove how you just got owned and can’t think of anything to rebut the facts that anon posted.

How about the fact that Operation Tomodachi happened in the first place? Talking about a lack of US military involvement here flies in the face of the fact that this lawsuit is even possible.

@13:00 I wasn’t even talking about
that, more about the relation because I know their isn’t exactly the nicest banter between Japan and America among the citizens, iirc and from a bit of experience (albeit judging nationality beforehand.) So all in all, the responses are not surprising. And that was assuming he was talking about the response on the article.

Operation Tomodachi cost about $80-$90 million, and these 8 military men are asking for $100 million in compensation for radiation–I’m sorry for those soldiers for getting poisoned, but one of the comments, “All for nothing now,” isn’t too far from the truth at this point.

They didn’t. There’s this thing called a Giger counter (a Geiger–Müller counter). It is used to monitor the amount of radiation in an area. There are other ways to do so as well. There is *no way* that we (the US) weren’t monitoring the rad levels in the areas we deployed our people.

However, there is also the issue of how much contamination they received (this is different from exposure). However, I’m pretty sure that those issues were also considered beforehand as well.

In other words, I’d say this is a cash grab by a tiny handful of people. In fact, it would be more appropriate (and futile) for them to sue the US Government since it was who ordered them into the area, not TEPCO.

This suit will go nowhere. These are scummy people with scummy lawyers trying to extort some money. But it is equally wrong to try to imply this is like the US Government demanding money from Japan or TEPCO.

This is so unbelievably dumb and you don’t know how the military works at all. LOL. Also they thought it was safe and they stayed a certain distance for safety reasons, but the numbers given to them were complete lies and they were exposed to toxic levels of radiation.

Kid, when you sign up for the (any) military force you take and follow orders or you get your ass beat. That’s how it works. You’re a soldier. You’re there to do a job, not debate it. You don’t get to think until you’re older and have put in your time.